Hong Seok-cheon Opens Up About Family Tragedy: “My Eldest Sister Died of Bone Marrow Cancer in High School”

Broadcaster Hong Seok-cheon has described how the death of his eldest sister during her high-school years shaped his sense of responsibility toward his family.

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My eldest sister went to heaven first after dying of bone marrow cancer when she was in high school.

Speaking on MBN’s “Problem Child in House” style family-talk program, he said his family originally had three daughters, but his eldest sister died of bone marrow cancer. He recalled that, in rural communities at the time, families did not make graves when a child died first. His mother continued to cry during every holiday, he said, and watching her from a young age made him wonder whether he needed to become the family’s pillar.

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I began to think, ‘Do I have to become the pillar of this family?’

“That is how the youngest son began taking on the role of the eldest son,” Hong said. He connected that responsibility to the decision to take in his nieces.

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That is how the youngest son began taking on the role of the eldest son.

After his older sister divorced, her two children needed a guardian during their school years, Hong said. He later learned that he could legally place the children under his family register and decided to do so.

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The children seemed to need a guardian during their school years, and when I learned I could legally place them under my family register, I felt I should do it.